Every time you conquer a prejudice you have taken a long step toward true freedom.

—Roy L. Smith, Tampa Morning Tribune, Tampa, Fla., March 31, 1930.

Your prejudices can be fatal to your hopes for success.

Too many people imprison their intellects within walls of prejudice that prevent them from seeing the world about them in the clear light of reason.

They are the people who have "opinions" in any and every subject, who are so sure they know the answers that they ca never learn, who are constantly talking when they should be listening.

This doesn't mean that you should not have firm, solid convictions or attitudes. But it does mean that you should gather all available facts, then study and correlate them carefully before reaching a conclusion based on logic and sound judgment.

The conclusion you reach may not necessarily be the correct one. But at least you will not be guilty of prejudice.

Remember, too, that it isn't necessary to cling to an opinion throughout your lifetime. You should have no reluctance to change or modify your opinions in the light of new information or developments. The wise man does this eagerly when he realizes that his present concept has been proved invalid.

On the other hand, it is necessary for you to realize that opinions contribute to progress, both your progress as an individual and human beings in general. The mere gathering of facts is useless except as they are brought together, interrelated, and used for positive action. Everything man has ever learned lies dormant in libraries and museums until someone "does something" with that knowledge.

The scientist works from a hypothesis--a tentative opinion which gives him a line of investigation on which to proceed toward more positive information. You should learn to do the same.

But first of all, you must unchain your mind from any prejudice--from the unreasoned "convictions" built on emotion and false premises.

Above all, sweep away prejudice based on the word "impossible." Whenever that word creeps into your conversation, stop instantly and think over carefully what you are saying.

When Henry Ford asked his engineers to produce an automatic cylinder block cast in a single piece instead of the two pieces then being used, one man said: "Mr. Ford, it's my opinion you're asking the impossible."

"Gentleman," Ford said, "If I had listened to all the people who told me it was 'impossible' to produce a horseless carriage, there would be no jobs here for you now."

When a good man's name is defamed, if he defends himself, the base slanderers say he is a braggart, talking too much of himself. If he does not defend himself, they say that his silence is a confession of his guilt. And...